Fox Soccer Channel’s TV ratings for the past year have been released, which reveal how many viewers the channel has been getting for Premier League, Serie A, Major League Soccer and other leagues and programs.

Fox Soccer Channel began being rated by Nielsen on October 1, 2008, so it’s perfect timing to reflect how the numbers for Premier League coverage have grown by 69% in the past 12 months.

Here are the Premier League matches which have garnered the highest TV ratings for Fox Soccer Channel:

209/20/09Chelsea-Tottenham296,000
308/29/09Man U-Arsenal294,000
410/25/09Liverpool-Man U282,000
504/19/09Man U-Everton**261,000
610/04/09Chelsea-Liverpool253,000
709/12/09Tottenham-Man U246,000
802/01/09Liverpool-Chelsea230,000
908/09/09Man U-Chelsea***227,000
1010/17/09Sunderland-L’pool225,00
  1. Chelsea v Tottenham, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009, 11am ET, 296,000 viewers
  2. Man United v Arsenal, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009, 12:30pm ET, 294,000
  3. Liverpool v Man United, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009, 10am ET, 282,000
  4. Man United v Everton [FA Cup semi-final], Sunday, April 19, 2009, 10am ET, 261,000
  5. Chelsea v Liverpool, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009, 11am ET, 253,000
  6. Tottenham v Man United, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009, 12:30pm ET, 246,000
  7. Liverpool v Chelsea, Sunday, Feb. 1, 11am ET, 230,000
  8. Man United v Chelsea [Community Shield], Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009, 10am ET, 227,000
  9. Sunderland v Liverpool, Saturday, Oct. 17, 10am ET, 225,000

Out of the above ratings, the ratings for the Chelsea against Tottenham game are surprisingly high especially because Chelsea haven’t been generating a huge amount of TV viewers for the Premier League games shown on US television by ESPN2. Maybe the Tottenham supporters were a large reason why that particular London derby game had higher than usual ratings?

But to me, the biggest surprise is that the Liverpool versus Manchester United game didn’t garner more viewers than it did especially with so much riding on the game for two of the biggest clubs in world football.

While Fox Soccer Channel’s ratings are impressive overall, they still don’t surpass the ratings for the top Premier League matches shown on ESPN2. But to be fair, ESPN2 has far more subscribers than Fox Soccer Channel which is in 34.7 million homes. ESPN2 is in more than 89 million homes.

As far as the average number of viewers for a Premier League match in 2008 compared to 2009, Fox Soccer Channel had over 84,000 in 2008, which has grown to 142,000 viewers per match in 2009 — which is less than the lowest rated ESPN2 broadcast of the Premier League this season.

How does the Premier League TV ratings on Fox compare to its Major League Soccer and Serie A ratings? In October 2009, MLS games averaged 51,000 viewers per game, while Serie A games have been averaging 49,000 in 2009.

Ratings from other Fox Soccer Channel programs show that the average number of viewers for Fox Football Fone-In has more than doubled in the past 12 months from 12,000 to 25,000. Fox Soccer Channel’s Super Sunday +, meanwhile, has seen a 252% growth in the average number of viewers from 21,000 to 74,000.

In other programming, Fox Soccer Report has seen the average number of viewers increase from 12,000 to 29,000 viewers. Sky Sports News’s ‘Through The Night’ has grown from 7,000 average viewers to 36,000.

In other news, Fox Soccer Channel estimates it’ll be in 40 million homes in 2011 thanks in part to the launch of Fox Soccer Channel in HD in January, 2010 when the Saturday 12:30pm ET and Sunday 11am ET Premier League games are expected to be shown in high definition.